The present invention relates to a retainer for mounting components to a substrate, and more particularly to a resilient retainer for snap fitting into a hole on a printed circuit board or the like.
Snap fitting retainers for mounting components on printed circuit boards and other planar substrates are well known. One type of such retainers comprises a set of bifurcated legs, each terminating in a wedge having a narrow forward portion for insertion into a hole and a broad shoulder portion that snaps over the hole for retention.
A problem with prior art retainers of this type is that they are prone to pop back out of the hole into which they have been inserted upon application of a rather nominal force in the direction opposite from the installation direction. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that manufacturing tolerances cause the holes into which the retainers are inserted to be different sizes, even though they are supposed to be the same. Similarly, the retainers themselves are subject to manufacturing tolerances that cause dimensional variations. This has required the retainers to be glued to the substrate (e.g., printed circuit board) after assembly, an extra step requiring increased labor and materials and adversely affecting the finished cost of a product utilizing such retainers. Where such a gluing step is skipped, the reliability of finished products may be adversely affected by retainers which release in the field.
It would be advantageous to provide a resilient, snap fitting retainer that provides a desired retention force despite tolerance variations in an opening into which the retainer snaps. Such a retainer should also withstand tolerance variations in the manufacturing of the retainer itself. Advantageously, such an improved retainer would partially deform to various degrees during insertion, depending on the exact dimensions of the retainer itself and the hole to which it is mounted, thereby effectively causing the retainer to resize itself during assembly.
The present invention provides a resilient, snap fitting retainer having the aforementioned and other advantages.